Ireland 43-21 Scotland: Three things we learned
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Irish power wins the day…again
Ireland's power game has proved too much for Scotland to handle over the past nine years and Saturday at the Aviva Stadium was just another chapter of the same story.
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The Scots were knocked off their game by a ferocious Irish defence, and with Tadhg Beirne and company all over the breakdown, the quick ball Scotland thrive on was in short supply.
In that scintillating first hour against France, Scotland were so clean in their work, but they just could not get close to those levels again.
That was in large part down to a mighty Irish performance, but Scotland's error count was way too high. While many of those errors were as a result of Irish pressure, some were self-inflicted wounds, and that will sting.
Gilchrist goes down fighting
Grant Gilchrist was part of a Scotland pack that quite comprehensively came off second best in Dublin, but the old warhorse produced a fine individual display.
On the day he became Scotland's most-capped lock on his 88th appearance, Gilchrist's work rate was outstanding.
He carried time and again into the guts of the Irish defence, and even showed velvet hands to put Rory Darge in for Scotland's third try.
It was a courageous display from the veteran lock as he left it all out on the field and went down fighting.
Progress bookended with disappointment
If you offered Scotland fans before the Six Nations a third-place finish that included wins over the two tournament favourites, France and England, then many would have taken it. Just about all of them would have snapped your hand off for that scenario after the opening defeat in Rome.
In a way it's a shame last week's thrilling win over France was not the final match as there would be an strong sense of positivity around where this Scotland team is going. As Huw Jones told us after the game, the Ireland defeat "has taken the wind out our sails".
A top-half finish is a decent return and there was so much to like in those three victories over England, Wales and France. The two defeats confirmed there is still work to do for this team to get their hands on silverware.
If Scotland are to win a trophy, they will need to figure out a way to finally put one over the Irish.